Helicopters, military and cancer research top Ohio earmark requests

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ohio’s health-care industry hopes Congress will help pick up part of the tab for emergency medical helicopters, technology upgrades, new drug development and commercial research.

Altogether, there are easily $50 million in health-related federal earmarks from Ohio legislators that could fund projects from the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University to a company researching cell therapy for battlefield wounds. Votes in Senate and House committees are expected this month to determine whether the institutions would get some, all, or any of their requests.

The James has one of the larger requests: a $5 million earmark that would continue to develop gene therapy drugs in the center’s neuroscience clinical gene therapy center. The hospital received funding for the project last year. Now, it wants to use $5 million to work with Nationwide Children’s Hospital to produce gene therapy drugs, said Jen Carlson, governmental relations director at the Columbus cancer hospital.

MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland is lobbying for $2 million to cover part of the $28 million to $30 million it cost to buy three new helicopters. The money would be used for medical equipment for Metro Life Flight, said Eileen Korey, MetroHealth’s vice president for communications.

Additional earmarks under consideration include:

• At least $3.5 million to Syncro Medical Innovations for further testing and improvements on the Gabriel Feeding Tube, which is used with battlefield trauma patients.
• At least $3.5 million to Arteriocyte in Cleveland to study and develop a cellular therapy that would cut down on infection, costs and recovery time from battlefield wounds.
• $1 million to the Cleveland Clinic to fund a clinical trial that tests neuroimaging techniques in post-traumatic stress disorder. The money would complement work the Clinic is already doing on PTSD with the Department of Defense.
• A $2.3 million to upgrade information technology at St. Vincent Charity Hospital in Cleveland that would include electronic medical records.
• $2 million for the BioInnovation Institute of Akron to enhance its orthopedic research and development program.
• At least $500,000 to BioEnterprise, to continue its work screening and finding potential of bioscience businesses that could move to the area.

Ohio’s Steris Corp. is getting a boost from outside the state. A Missouri legislator has requested the company get $5.3 million to work on a decontamination system there.